OverDrive, EBSCO Link Libby Content Directly Into Discovery Tools

"When metadata flows cleanly between systems, users don't have to think about how they're finding content – they just find it," said Dave Mangione, Senior VP of Research Databases at EBSCO. "This integration demonstrates how EBSCO's open infrastructure connects content from diverse providers while minimizing administrative effort for libraries."

OverDrive serves more than 80,000 libraries and schools across 115 countries. Its Libby app is the primary reading app for public libraries; the Sora app targets K-12 schools. Kanopy, which OverDrive acquired in 2021, streams video to academic and public libraries. EBSCO's discovery layer sits on top of library catalogs at thousands of universities and colleges, indexing both subscription databases and local holdings.

The integration addresses a friction point that has persisted in academic libraries: digital collections often live in separate silos from the main catalog. A student searching for a textbook might see the print copy but miss the ebook unless they know to check Libby separately. By pulling OverDrive's metadata into EBSCO's index, the library surfaces both formats in one results page.

For OverDrive, the deal opens deeper access to the academic market, where EBSCO's discovery tools have near-universal penetration among U.S. research universities. For EBSCO, it adds OverDrive's catalog – roughly 5 million titles – to the content pool its discovery service indexes, a differentiator against competitors like Ex Libris's Primo and OCLC's WorldCat Discovery.

Neither company disclosed financial terms or revenue-sharing structure. The integration is live for mutual customers now.